by Pete Thorsen
Cal was wearing leather gloves as was his custom when pulling his cart and he started sliding down one rope to the bottom. Reaching the bottom he removed the dirt that was partially covering the man and when he checked he found a strong pulse so he tied one rope around the man’s torso under his arms and then climbed back to the top himself.
Cal told the woman he was alive but if she wanted to save him she would have to help pull him up out of the hole. She agreed and between them both pulling the man was soon up top and the woman got some water and was washing his face when Cal just dumped some over the man’s head. That was enough of a shock to bring him around and soon he was able to speak and after a couple minutes he managed to stand. They both thanked Cal for saving his life even though Cal told them that he was pretty sure he would have been fine without Cal. They insisted on at least giving him a good meal so Cal did stay and have supper with them.
Chapter Ten
Cal thought he would at least go up to see Dodge City then maybe curve south to Texas and maybe back home for winter. He rather enjoyed being a trader and ended up stopping in just about every town. Towns did not have near the people in that they had before the Event of course but often a small town would have at least two or three families that were trying to eek out a living there but some were also vacant.
Towns were often placed near water; either a river, creek, or lake so where there is water people can make a go of it. Everyone had gardens of course and houses were often pieces of a few buildings that were pieced together. Sometimes only part of a house or other building had burnt so there were still materials that could be salvaged.
The vehicles were still producing some trading stock for Cal and one day he even traded for a real loaf of bread; something he had not eaten since the Event. It was a real treat. He had maps that he found in the cars and kept track of where he was all the time. The areas farthest from a town were the best salvage spots both on the highway and at the places along the road.
Cal knew he should make some kind of plan as his salvage days would soon be over but he just put the decision off for later and kept walking. He did finally make it to Dodge City but it was most all burnt down of course. It was built next to a river so there were a few people still in the town. He did a little trading and then left town this time heading directly south. His plan was to take highway 283 south to 54 then take that back southwest towards home. That way he would be traveling all different roads.
In a day and a half he was at highway 54 and headed south west. There was a rail road line that ran next to the highway and he kept an eye on that to see if there was a train stopped somewhere. When the rail line separated from the highway Cal switched over and walked the rail road line instead of the road. It was faster as he had no vehicles to stop and look through but that also meant he did not find anything either. The rail line only left the highway for short stretches though so he lost very little salvaging chances.
In the town of Fowler there were several train cars but they had nothing in them. It was similar in the town of Mead where there were several cars but only a couple had anything in and those were of no help to him. So he just continued walking and checking all vehicles on the highway and doing some trading in towns or where ever he met people.
Some towns were completely vacant and had no one at all living there. The town of Plains was such a town. Cal spent some time poking around there and found many trade items here and there in the little town.
As he often did Cal walked up to many places near the highway to check them out. As he walked up towards one now he heard a couple shots and against his better judgment he continued walking to see what was going on. There was quite a good windbreak growing around the property and Cal tucked his cart in where it was thick and advanced slowly with his rifle ready to see what was what.
There appeared to be a man standing over a dead one and he was just bending down to go through the dead man’s pockets. Another man was holding onto a woman and as Cal watched he ripped the dress she had on wide open in front then threw her down and dropped on top of her. What he was about to do was pretty obvious. Cal was only about forty yards away and he upped his rifle and shot the man that was on top of the woman in the head then spun quickly to put two bullets through the other man’s torso. He waited a couple minutes to see if either one moved or another came out where Cal could see him.
When nothing happened Cal walked over to the one that was still lying atop the woman and kicked him hard enough to roll him to the side. The woman’s face and upper body was covered in blood but Cal was sure he never hit her with a bullet. He felt her neck and her pulse was strong and she appeared to be breathing.
Then he walked over to the other one he had shot and when the man moved slightly Cal put another bullet into him. When the bullet hit the man he never even flinched so it must have just been a muscle twitch after he was dead. The man the other guys had shot was very dead also. Cal went back to his cart and returned with it and again checked the woman. Still no movement so Cal took some water from his cart and using the back of a shirt he ripped from the dead guy Cal started cleaning the blood from the woman’s face and neck.
Cal expected her to come around with the cooling effect of the water but she was still out so looking about he carried her to some nearby shade and laid her down. He then went back to the men and gathered the guns and what they had on them and put the stuff in his cart. After that he looked around the place and found two loaded backpacks that he assumed belonged to the two men he had shot.
Keeping an eye on the woman he went through the packs and finding ammo in the calibers of the guns they carried he was sure who the packs used to belong to. Then he went into the buildings on the place. It was plain that someone had been living here and after finding some woman’s clothes he had the answer as to whom. With that discovery he carried the woman inside and laid her on what he assumed was her own bed.
Then looked around inside her ‘house’ to see what was there. There was some food but not very much but there was quite a little water so there must be a well on the place that he missed when looking outside. Seeing all the water he grabbed a wash cloth and a towel that were by their makeshift sink and finished cleaning the woman off, even getting most of the blood out of her blond hair.
Taking a sheet from the other bunk he covered the woman and just let her sleep as he went back out and drug the two guys he shot well away from the buildings into one of the surrounding fields. Then the other man he dragged into the shade and covered him with a tarp from one of the sheds.
Seeing a garden Cal walked over to see how it was doing and he thought it was rather poor. If the two folks were planning to live off that garden they were sadly mistaken. It was way to small and everything was sickly looking. He was no gardener but you could see it was in poor shape. He still had not found a well and wondered where they got their water from. If they were carrying water from a distance away and trying to water the garden no wonder it was doing poorly. It takes a lot of water and water is very heavy to carry very far but he would find out when the woman woke up. If she ever did that is.
Chapter Eleven
The woman woke up while Cal was getting a small supper together. He knew when she woke because she started screaming. Cal went over to her and started trying to calm her down by talking softly and calmly telling her she was all right and he had no intention of harming her in any way. Well that did not seem to be working and he thought about slapping her like in the movies but he did feel right about hitting a woman so he sat next to her and held her.
She didn’t try to fight him off or anything so he just held her and talked calmly to her. To Cal it seemed like she kept crying and screaming for hours but was likely only a few minutes before she quieted down to just some quiet sobbing. This lasted for some time and Cal held her and talked to her the whole time. Then she was quiet and so Cal shut up also. At some point she had apparently put her arms around him as he found she was holding him when he tr
ied to get up. She seemed to come to her senses and released him.
Cal walked back over and continued getting some supper ready for the two of them. When he was done and looked back over at her she was sitting up with the sheet around her. He started to carry her supper over but stopped when she asked him if he would step outside while she changed. Cal did so and shortly she told him he could come back in.
“My name is Tia Marsh. Thank you for saving me.”
“You’re welcome. I’m Cal Johansson. I’m sorry I did not get here in time to save your husband.”
“Mark was my brother. I see you have your supper ready. Please don’t let me stop you from eating.”
“I made enough for both of us. Join me, it will make both of us feel better.”
With that they both sat down in the only two chairs and ate the modest meal Cal had made. Cal got Tia to talk some about her life here with her brother. They grew up here and had been able to save very little from their house when it started on fire. They did have a fair amount of food in the root cellar and had been living on that but it was almost gone. The farm had a well but it had an electric pump which no longer worked of course so they had been getting water from a neighbor’s windmill that was out in the pasture about a mile from here.
They had saved some seeds but the hot summer was cooking the garden and they couldn’t carry enough water the mile to keep everything alive. She didn’t know what she would do now without her brother’s help and guidance. Cal told her he was kind of a traveling trader and she was welcome to come with him as far as she wanted. He was slowly making his way back to his very modest home in New Mexico. Or if she wanted she could take one of the bad guy’s backpacks full of gear and strike out on her own. Cal said she could no way make a go of it here with no water.
She thanked him and said tomorrow she would bury her brother and decide then what she would do. She asked if Cal would stay until tomorrow so she could go with him if that is what she decided on. Cal said he was in no hurry and he would dig the grave in the morning if she would show him where she wanted it. That night Cal pitched his tent near her ‘house’ while she slept inside.
Tia had showed him where she wanted the grave and Cal rose early and had most of it dug before Tia came outside. She thanked him for digging and for wrapping her brother’s body up. Cal finished the grave and lowered her brother Mark into it. She said a little prayer over her brother and together they refilled the grave. Then they ate a quick breakfast and Tia asked if she could accompany him for a ways. He said that was fine and gave her one of the packs so she could pack whatever she wanted to bring.
Cal spent the time combing through the other buildings to see if there was stuff they should bring with and looking if there was some kind of cart she could use. He found a few things that were worth bringing but nothing suitable to use as a cart. With the bad guy’s packs were two tents so they had plenty to sleep in. Cal asked Tia to bring any guns or ammo she had as it would make good trading stock if she did not want them.
She said they had never believed in guns but now would like to learn to shoot as with her brother gone she would have to defend herself. Cal took out the guns the bad guys had and taught her to shoot one of them that day. He had her do a lot of ‘dry firing’ first after teaching her the basics as ammo was precious. She was a quick learner and with a just a half a box of shells she was shooting plenty good to defend herself. Cal let her keep the gun, ammo, and holster. They stayed again that night and left first thing in the morning.
Rather than either carrying anything Cal loaded everything on his cart (except his rifle) and they started walking. Tia was surprised at Cal opening every vehicle they came to but soon learned that even though many had been gone through before there were still riches to be found. Occasionally they still found unopened vehicles or fairly often unopened trunks on cars. Cal told her they were partners so whatever they found would be equal shares.
Tia thought he should have the most as he was the one that knew what to take and lugged all the stuff in the cart and pried open the sealed vehicles. But Cal said they were partners and both walked the same number of steps so it was equal shares. They stopped at most places looking for a cart Tia could use but so far had found nothing suitable.
Then they came to Liberal, Kansas which had once been a fair sized town. The first thing they saw was some kind of truck parking area. It was full of semi trucks and trailers. They spent some time there looking through all the trucks and trailers and found several things to take with. Cal said they would spend some time in this town and try to find her a cart of some kind. They ended up spending three days in the town and Tia had a cart; it was another bicycle trailer that Cal put a comfortable handle on and reinforced the whole bottom.
He also extended the reinforced floor out the back a ways so Tia’s backpack had a special place to sit where it would be easy to grab and run with if necessary. They found a lot of good items in the town and went through many train cars there. Surprisingly they did not see any people in the town but that was certainly OK too.
They continued their trek and now did not stop at many places off the road as Tia now had a good cart to use and they pretty much just stayed on the highway and only camped a short distance from the pavement at night. Cal made sure they always carried plenty of water even though it was heavy and when they came to a working windmill or a running creek or river or most any body of water they stopped and boiled up enough to fill their containers.
Tia soon hardened up to traveling as she was used to carrying water that mile or so everyday from the windmill near her old home. They found two pairs of good shoes that fit her in cars and Cal found another pair for himself. They found a truck that had been carrying food and even though much had been taken and some was spoiled, they still came away with a couple weeks worth or more just from that one stop. They gradually got used to traveling with each other and Tia soon picked up the ins and outs of trading because just about daily they traded with someone they met.
After two weeks on the road they came to Dalhart, Texas and stayed there trading for most of a day. Here they also turned on highway 87 to head northwest. Four days later they were in Clayton and turned again on highway 56 to head west. In Clayton they were warned to take plenty of water with and be sure to refill at every opportunity as the land to the west was pretty barren.
But it turned out well as they found water more often than they needed and even found some good items in vehicles along the way. They made the trip to Springer in six days and stayed for a day trading there (there was water so there so there were also people).
North of Springer Cal finally found what he thought he might some day; it was a stopped train and it looked like no one had went through it. He guessed he was only twenty five or so miles from his home too. Cal and Tia spent two days looking through the train cars and the cars carrying shipping containers. They found a lot of food sealed mostly in five gallon buckets and in big tin cans. Which they learned was called LTS food (Long Term Storage).
There were many many other things in the train also. They loaded both carts heavy with items and went to Cal’s place. When they got near it Cal stopped about a mile away and left Tia with both carts and went ahead alone to check out his home. The caution was not necessary as it looked like no one had been there in his absence. He promptly went back for Tia and the carts and brought them back to his house.
Tia asked first thing about whether the windmill worked and Cal turned it on and there was just enough of a breeze to have it start pumping water. Tia actually splashed like kid in the clear water coming from the pipe. Cal then took her inside to show her the house setup. Tia looked over the inside and only said it could sure use some dusting but she was smiling.
They did some cleaning and unloaded the carts, Cal showed Tia the other shed and the two bikes with trailers. She was surprised to see the bikes and questioned why he walked when he had this set up. He told her he did not really like riding bike and was nev
er in any hurry anyway but he thought they should use the rigs to ferry the food they found on the train back to the house.
So for the next couple weeks they made many trips back and forth from the train to the house. They then spent considerable time cleaning out the barn very thoroughly. This included a lot of scrubbing, both walls and floors with untold buckets of water until Tia was satisfied that it was clean enough for a storage space. After letting it dry well they started stacking the buckets of LTS food in the barn. Then came more trips back and forth to the train to bring more food from the train. It took a solid month to haul all the food to the barn. With all the trips they became very familiar with every vehicle and place between their place and the train.
Tia suggested they salvage items from the RVs that were out on the highway. Some were pretty burnt but some were not too bad and there were a few tent trailers and such that had very little if any damage. They walked and used Cal’s big three wheeled cart and Tia’s trailer/cart.
They took a compact oven with a cook top combination from one RV. They had measured the bunks that Cal had built in the house and cut down two foam mattresses to the correct size from a tent trailer so they would now sleep in comfort. They collected every propane tank that they could find and brought home.
Cal removed a compact double sink from a RV and a clean water storage tank. After bringing everything home he made many measurements and went back to the highway and salvaged plywood that he cut to the correct sizes there so it would be easier to transport.